My Advice: Slasher fans should buy it; everyone else should rent it, just to see how far the franchise has come.

This latest installment in the Halloween saga opens with several teenagers, who have all won a very special contest. They get to spend a night in the childhood home of Michael Myers, well-known serial killer and slasher psycho. The twist is that their night will be broadcast live on the Internet, and people who tune in will, of course, get much more than they had bargained for.

Resurrection is about on par with the higher end of slasher flicks. Yes, the people are abominably stupid in places, but let’s face it–if Michael Myers was chasing you around your house, making you trip over the dead bodies of your friends, you might not have the brain power to do any calculus either. Myers, even after all this time, is still quite spine-chilling, and the special effects are a good accompaniment here: not too gross, but not too understated to be effective for today’s jaded audiences, either.

The acting is about as good as you need it to be in such a film. The characters aren’t exactly nuanced, but given that their entire raison d’etre is to become meat soon, that’s ok. Busta Rhymes is quite entertaining as the greedy power behind this contest, except during his heavy-handed speech at the end. While it’s almost charmingly meta to say that watching murders shouldn’t be entertainment, it is almost insulting to the audience’s intelligence to hand us the moral of the story like that, in such an obvious and longwinded way.

The special features are delightfully packed. The commentary with the director and editor is funny in places, illuminating in others, and it’s always wonderful to hear the creators talk about their baby. Even the included deleted, alternate scenes have some commentary–a nice touch. The web cam special (also with commentary) is an appropriate for this web-themed film, and the “On the Set” feature with Curtis should delight her fans. I love that she feels so pleased with the franchise that gave her career life, especially as other actors might be snotty and flee the legacy of a franchise such as this.

The head-cam featurette is kind of mediocre, but it’s something, and a bit of fun, along with the photo gallery. The storyboard comparisons will be the favorite of the film school geeks in the audience who want to know how scenes were conceptualized and then make to live. Would that every DVD produced included this kind of behind-the-scenes look at how art comes together.

Basically, it’s a rare horror movie these days that can strike the right balance between cheese and taking itself too seriously. Resurrection manages to pull this off, and never falls prey itself to cardinal rule of slasher movies: don’t pretend to be something you aren’t. This is good, bloody fun, and even if it’s a bit predictable in places, the genre is so codified that they almost have to be. Just don’t forget the popcorn and tub o’ soda.